A total of 13 math majors and faculty attended the 2017 Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, held at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, on March 9-11.
A total of 13 math majors and faculty attended the 2017 Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, held at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, on March 9-11.
In addition to attending many student talks, panels about career possibilities for math majors and plenary addresses by prominent mathematicians, the following students competed as a team against other schools in a multi-round game of Math Jeopardy: Frett, Hadgis, Jakes, and Murnane. The Elon team was exciting to watch, crushing the competition in the quarter- and semifinals. During the final round, Elon jumped out to an early lead but eventually finished in 3rd place. Beuerle served as the Elon team coach and Russell served as one of the judges during initial rounds for non-Elon matchups.
Jakes’ talk, “Higher Degree Polynomials and Their Solvability by Radicals”, outlined several research contributions Jakes has made to computing symmetry properties of polynomial roots. Jakes’ talk was deemed meritorious by faculty judges, and he was awarded a “Walt and Susan Patterson Award” for best presentation; the award was accompanied by a cash prize. Jakes is an honors fellow and a Lumen Prize recipient. His research mentor is Awtrey.
Russell gave a presentation titled “Origami in Mathematics Education” in the Special Session on Mathematics and Art. In his talk, Russell shared an activity using origami in preparation for K-8 lesson plans with pre-service teachers at Elon.
Clark spoke on “Linear Inequalities: We Shouldn’t Avoid Them” in the Contributed Session on Algebra, Number Theory, and Topology. His talk was about the Fourier-Motzkin technique for solving systems of linear inequalities. In addition to his talk, Clark also conducted official business in his role as Chair-Elect of the Section.
Beuerle presented “Using Kahoot! in your Classroom” in the Special Session on Research on Teaching and Learning in Collegiate Mathematics. Beuerle incorporated a Live Kahoot! session with interactions from the audience. His talk addressed the pros and cons of the technology and how it was used in an Intro Statistics class in the Spring of 2017. Additionally, Beuerle participated in a workshop for “The Directors of Mathematics Tournaments” since he is co-chair of the NCCTM State math contest committee. Beuerle also served as an excellent bus driver for 12 of the Elon conference attendees.
Lee served as official photographer of the trip. He also provided vocal music entertainment during the long bus rides, which was much appreciated by all (who were awake.)